


icarus

by blawky



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Other, a whole lot of angst tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 15:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15197402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blawky/pseuds/blawky
Summary: So what is left, but a broken man?





	icarus

And so, like all things must, it begins. 

It begins with a promise, a thing meant to be broken. 

It begins with a sword, held to his neck by the boy -- no, man -- he called brother. 

But that was before, and this is now, and in the now, Genji Shimada is a dead man walking, his executioner a shadow of a man he once knew, a shadow who he has never met. 

“I must do this,” the shadow whispers, but Genji knows that this man is not speaking to his quarry. No, the shadow speaks only to itself, convincing itself that this is its duty. 

Duty. What a strange, strange word. A word that meant everything to the Shimada clan.

A word that meant nothing to Genji Shimada. Perhaps that was why he was here, blade to his throat, ruby red liquid kissing its blade so sweetly it could be likened to the gentle caress of a lover, and why this shadow despised him so. 

“I know,” he whispered back, and there was something soft hidden beneath the words. 

Wind and words. That was all that lay betwixt the shadow and he, all that lay betwixt death’s loving caress and Genji Shimada, the boy who feared nothing but his own shadow on the wall. 

“Tell me a story,” he implored the shadow, and it hesitated, its grip on the blade faltering. If Genji Shimada had been a different man, perhaps that was when he’d have made his strike. But he was Genji Shimada, and his fate had been written into history on the day he was born. 

A tear slithered down his cheek, cold and wet. He did not allow another to follow it. 

And then the shadow began to speak. “I will tell you the tale of Icarus,” it whispered, its voice soft and full of mourning. In his mind’s eye, Genji saw visions of his mother, a child on either side of her lap, softly lulling them to sleep with the story of Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun. 

“On the island of Crete, during the age of King Minos, there lived a man named Daedalus and his young son Icarus. Daedalus was just an ordinary man, except for one special talent -- he was an inventor of strange and wonderful mechanical creations.” And so it went that the shadow’s voice and his mother’s blended together for a moment in time, the two creatures of his past made one amalgamation of his fears. 

Genji listened to the rest of the shadow’s story patiently, their bodies still caught in that eternal dance, the only music the blood throbbing in both of their heads as they awaited each of their final moment together, when the shadow would finally dig its blade in, and Genji would thusly die, his last thoughts of Icarus, and of stories. 

As the shadow spoke, Genji realized it was nearing the end of the story. Genji had always hated the ending: he remembered crying the first time he heard it, out of sadness for poor Icarus, and out of fear. 

“The day they were to leave, Daedalus lectured Icarus one last time, ‘Now son, remember, you must be cautious when we fly. Fly too close to the ocean and your wings will become too heavy with the water that sprays off the waves. Fly too close to the sun and the wax will melt and you will lose feathers. Follow my path closely and you’ll be fine.’” 

The shadow’s voice grew rich with emotion as it neared the end of its story, uttering those final few phrases that always, without fail, ended Icarus’s life, just as quickly as it had begun. 

“‘No Icarus! Stop!’ shouted Daedalus, ‘The wax will melt if it gets too warm. Not so high. Not so high!’ But Icarus was too far away or too lost in his own happy thoughts of excitement to listen to his father’s warnings. As he flew still higher he began to feel the warm wax dripping down his arms and saw feathers falling like snowflakes down around him.”

Genji allowed the blade to dig itself in a bit deeper as the end of the story came, a peaceful smile gracing his features. 

“Icarus plunged toward the sea frantically flapping the pulleys with his arms. When he finally hit the water, there wasn’t a feather left attached.” 

And so ended the story of poor Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun. And here, so Genji thought, was the end of his story. 

It was here that Genji Shimada learned some endings come wrapped in beginnings, for just as the shadow moved to swipe its blade across his neck, it instead plunged the sword deep into his stomach, pulling it out. His body, still bleeding from combat with the shadow before this moment, fell gracelessly to the floor of the small temple. 

“You have flown too close to the sun, Icarus,” the shadow said, and its face looked strangely familiar. 

“Goodbye, little sparrow.” It whispered, and Genji felt his lifeblood oozing onto the floor, his vision growing bleary with pain, and the dizzying kiss of death. 

“Goodbye, brother,” he retorted, a final smile touching his features as the life began to leave his body. 

The shadow disappeared, its footfalls soft and mournful as it left the temple. 

And so it was that tears and blood mixed together on that temple floor: the tears of a wolf, and the blood of a sparrow.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading my first story!! 
> 
> special thanks to all of the people who beta-read for me, and thank you to everyone who helped assuage my anxiety before i posted this, haha
> 
> summary comes from the song I Can't Go On Without You by Kaleo, a song that also serves as the unofficial theme song to this fic, so i strongly recommend giving it a listen either while you read or afterwards
> 
> (also feel free to follow/DM me if you read this!! my blog is dumb but i love everyone who follows it)


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